Golf courses frequently need to ensure that motorized golf carts do not drive on certain areas of the course. Therefore, an inexpensive fence is often created by inserting the lower ends of several posts into spaced holes in the ground, and then stringing a single piece of synthetic rope or cord across the upper ends of the posts. A very inexpensive material suitable for use as posts is polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe. For mowing, the posts are removed from the ground, a lawn mower is driven over the holes for the posts, and then the posts are reinserted into their holes. Over time, the holes in the ground become enlarged, and as a result the posts will wobble.
It has therefore become common to also provide a ground anchor for the post which is disposed in the ground and resists enlargement of the hole in order to reliably maintain the post in a proper upright position with little or no wobble. Usually, the ground anchor is a short section of PVC pipe which has an inside diameter slightly larger than the outside diameter of the post, which is driven into a hole in the ground, and which removably receives the lower end of the post. Most commonly, driving forces are applied to the upper end of the short section of pipe, which usually deforms the upper end and in some cases produces cracks in the pipe. Further, the lower end of this pipe section may be deformed or cracked by resistance of the ground as the pipe section is driven into the ground, particularly during dry weather.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an improved ground anchor and a driving member which permits the ground member to be driven into the ground quickly and with no damage thereto.